Texas History and Texans

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A place for Texas History and people from Texas.

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Dana X. Bible’s 1917 and 1919 football seasons (he was an Aviator in the Great War) were both undefeated AND unscored upon; 270-0 and 275-0. He was also the basketball and baseball coach at that time. His program at A&M is the only football team to hold opponents scoreless in two separate seasons.

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And the year in between those two, 1918 we only had 7 points scored on us, in our only loss.

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"A few years ago the great Joe Ely recorded this song that I wrote, then more recently The Highwaymen. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings Kris Kristofferson. They recorded it and put it on their record, and I was so happy because man it was a nice thing. But I always felt that Willie Nelson might help me out sometime because I went to his second picnic, the Willie Nelson Fourth of July picnic. I went to his second one.
I was living in Houston and I had a date. It was my first date, ever. I was about 27 years old and we got in my old car and we drove up to the Texas World Speedway, just south of College Station. And it was back in the days of free love and wonderful, happy, shiny people. Everything was fun and nothing was scary or dangerous and we went there and had a wonderful time in the Willie way.
And I had so much fun that in the afternoon I had to take a nap. And I woke up from my nap and there was a man speaking over the P.A. system and he said 'We've had a fire in the parking lot and about 40 cars have burned up.' And everybody in the land of free love --- in that time, in that wonderful time of free love --- when they heard that they went 'aw.' 10,000 people simultaneously said 'aw.' And then he said 'we have the license plate numbers of the cars and the first winner is RHP-997.'
You might wonder why I remember that so well. And I woke up out of my haze and I said 'that's my car, man.' And in the time of free love and happiness everyone said 'wow, way to go.' And they started clapping for me. And I ran out there and there was not enough of my car left to carbon-14 date. And I sat down on the burnt, black grass --- and I can admit this now --- I wept. I cried big ol' giant tears. And my date was laughing and I said 'what are you laughing about? We don't have a ride.' And she said,'I do.' And it was then that she introduced me to Tarzan and Adonis, who were terminally tan and wearing loincloths. And they said 'we'll take care of her, man.' And because it was that time, that wonderful time, I said 'thanks, dudes.' And they skipped gleefully away.
And a man from the festival came up to me while I was still crying and said, 'well, the least we can do is let you meet Willie.' So they took me backstage to Willie's bus and they opened the door and low and behold Willie came out, pigtails and all. And he shook my hand and said he was sorry he would like to stay and visit with me but he had to go jam with Leon Russell. And now, some 20 years later, the road goes on forever ..."
----- Robert Earl Keen describes how his car caught on fire 50 years ago at the Willie Nelson 4th of July picnic in College Station. I transcribed this from Robert's wonderful "No 2. Live Dinner" LP, which came out in 1996 and which every Texan should own. I imagine it was a crushing blow to Robert Earl at the time but thankfully he seems to have done okay in the aftermath. 
Here's a photo of the fire, courtesy the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.

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I was in college with Robert Earl Keen

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Town of Gene Autry
When the Town of Gene Autry was named after the very popular movie singing cowboy of those days. The Town was in Carter County, Oklahoma on the date of Nov. 16th, 1941. The town was sparsely populated but sufficient to vote to change its name from Berwyn.
The town was renamed "Gene Autry" to honor the singer and motion picture star. Though Autry was born in Tioga, Texas, his family moved to Oklahoma while he was an infant. He was raised in the southern Oklahoma towns of Achille and Ravia. Autry had also worked as a telegraph operator near Berwyn. In 1939 he bought the 1,200-acre Flying A Ranch on the west edge of Berwyn, and the town decided to honor him by changing its name. Approximately 35,000 people attended the ceremonies broadcast live from the site on Autry's Melody Ranch radio show. Expectations that Autry would make his permanent home on the ranch were heightened when Autry’s house in California burned down just 8 days before the name change ceremony but were dashed 21 days after the ceremony with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Autry joined the military in 1942. He sold the ranch after the war. The ranch is now all but gone.
The Town of Gene Autry is now a part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Micropolitan Statistical Area and the original area is home to the Gene Autry Historical Society which maintains the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum. After a temporary closure, the museum was re-opened on September 26, 2015. The Museum is open Thursday-Saturday from 10AM to 4PM, and Sunday 12PM to 4PM. Closed during the winter. The museum relates not only to the cowboy singer himself, but also other western-themed entertainers and to local history.